https://www.techtimes.com/articles/2...uth-africa.htm
Up in the Makhonjwa Mountains of South Africa is a sliver of volcanic rock originating from 3.3 billion years ago.
More than its age, scientists are awestruck at what they found within the ancient rock: evidence of organic matter from outer space.
"This is the very first time that we have found actual evidence for extraterrestrial carbon in terrestrial rocks," Frances Westall, study author and astrobiologist at the CNRS Centre for Molecular Biophysics, told New Scientist.
In the Moakhonjwa Mountain region, the scientists analyzed a volcanic deposit known as the Josefsdal Chert. With the use of electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, they discovered that a 2-millimeter rock layer in the deposit contained two types of organic matter that point distinctly at extraterrestrial origins.